Published 5:30 am, Thursday, June 16, 2011

Jacqueline Tarsa LeBaron, seen in 2010, could get up to five years in prison.

Jacqueline Tarsa LeBaron, seen in 2010, could get up to five years in prison.

Photo: Brett Coomer, Chronicle File

Cult leader's daughter's guilty plea draws bloody saga to close

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

GALVESTON — A daughter of a cult leader who drafted a hit list before his death pleaded guilty Thursday to charges related to the slaying of an 8-year-old girl and three former members of the Lamb of God religious sect 22 years ago in Houston and Irving.

The four were targeted as part of Ervil LeBaron's call for "blood atonement," a doctrine once espoused by Brigham Young but later renounced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Those who left the Mormon sect were considered "sons of perdition" and marked for death.

LeBaron orchestrated the death of his brother, Joel, after breaking away from the Firstborn Church, and also is believed responsible for the deaths of dozens of rivals, wives of church members and others whose property he coveted or whom he saw as a threat.

After his capture in Mexico in 1979, Ervil LeBaron was convicted in Utah for arranging the murder of rival sect leader Rulon Allred and was sentenced to life in prison. Before his death in 1981, he authored a 500-page manifesto, the "Book of the New Covenant," naming 50 people accused of disloyalty or of being beyond redemption. In it he marked the Chynoweths and Marston as sons of perdition and ordered their deaths.

Son took over for father

Their slayings were among a number carried out after the cult leader's death and masterminded by Aaron Le­Baron, who replaced his father as head of the sect. He remained in contact from Mexico while William Heber LeBaron came to Texas to oversee the killings in Houston and Dallas.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said that on June 27, 1988, William Heber LeBaron shot Mark Chynoweth three times at a business at 2102 Blalock, in the Spring Branch area on Houston's northwest side.

At about the same time, Richard and Patricia Le­Baron encountered Duane Chynoweth and his daughter in the 6000 block of Rena. Richard LeBaron shot them both.